Bitget’s R$ 1.86 billion theft lands among the biggest crypto heists on record

Last year, attackers stole $2.9 billion in cryptocurrency across almost 150 attacks, according to TRM Labs researchers. The list of the biggest cases is a reminder that crypto theft is not a side note for PSPs and exchanges: it is part of the operating risk profile, and it moves fast.

1. Bybit — In February 2025, $1.5 billion in ether was stolen from the Bybit exchange, in what researchers called the largest digital asset theft to date. The FBI said North Korea was responsible for the attack, and that the funds were quickly converted into other cryptocurrencies and then spread across thousands of addresses on different blockchains. North Korea denied involvement in crypto thefts.
2. Poly Network — Hackers stole about $610 million from Poly Network in August 2021. Poly Network is a platform that facilitates token transfers between users. The notable footnote here is that the hackers later returned almost all of the stolen funds, which is rare enough to be worth mentioning.
3. Ronin Network — In March 2022, hackers stole cryptocurrency worth about $540 million from a blockchain project tied to the online game Axie Infinity. Ronin, a network that allows crypto transfers between different blockchains, said the attackers took about 173,600 ethers and 25.5 million USD Coin tokens.
4. Coincheck — In January 2018, hackers stole about $530 million in cryptocurrency from the Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck, at the time values were measured. The attackers hit one of the company’s hot wallets, meaning a digital wallet stored online, and drained the funds. At the time, South Korea’s intelligence agency said a North Korean hacker group could have been behind the theft.
5. Mt. Gox — In one of the earliest and most notorious crypto attacks, bitcoins worth almost $500 million were stolen from the Tokyo exchange Mt. Gox between 2011 and 2014. Mt. Gox, which had accounted for 80% of global bitcoin trading, filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2014 after the breach became public. About 24,000 customers lost access to their funds.

Authorities warned in July that organized crime groups use cryptocurrencies to move funds quickly across borders without relying on the conventional financial system. For high-risk operators, that means the headline number is only part of the story; the real issue is how fast stolen funds can move, fragment, and disappear across wallets and chains.